Branding4Resilience. Co-Design as a Tool to Enhance and Transform Inner Territories through Architecture

Inner territories are a central issue that is being discussed all over Europe. More than 60% of the European population live in peripheral contexts outside of main urban conurbations. Yet, the contexts addressed by the Italian National Strategy on Inner Areas – covering approximately the 60% of Italy and hosting nearly 13.5 million people – are often lacking successful regional policies and systemic territorial approaches to achieve effective transformations. In order to tackle with such fragile areas, a new development path has to be defined through the engagement of communities and the involvement of local actors. This contribution aims to present and discuss the results of a research project of relevant national interest in Italy, “Branding4Resilience” (B4R), that investigates fragile territories around the Italian peninsula. Branding is intended here as an engine to start processes of re-appropriation and re-settling in lessfavoured areas. Enhancing small villages through minimal tourist infrastructures is thus only a starting point of a larger transformation path that aims at resilient communities and new open habitats. B4R provides expertise for co-designing actions and co-visioning scenarios, promoting a new use of heritage and local resources. B4R, exhibited at the Venice Biennale of Architecture 2021, explores and compares the 4 areas through an interdisciplinary perspective, operatively intervening on selected inner territories in Marche Region, Trento Province, Piedmont, and Sicily. A new role of these peripheral contexts in relation to growing metropolitan areas is investigated through explorative and collaborative design approaches involving communities. The focus of this contribution is the co-design phase of the project, that looked at paradigmatic cases in the four regions. The external and expert approach of the co-design workshops helped envisioning design solutions and systemic approaches that in the future will define tailored visions and strategic scenarios and guidelines in cooperation with public institutions.